metadata — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Data that describes other data, serving as an informative label.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Most websites contain metadata to tell the computer how to lay out the content on the screen.

2. Structured information about a file (date created, creator, software used to create, last modified, file format, file fingerprint, etc).

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   That photo's metadata suggests it was edited using Photoshop.

Noun

1. data about data

   Broader terms

   datainformation

   Examples

   a library catalog is metadata because it describes publications